October 25, 2004

I am attending the Neurosciences meeting in San Diego. More than 25,000 scientists from around the world are here each day and the amount of brain power(no pun intended) is staggering. Our founding scientists are helping me get up to speed in this area and I'm getting an education on my feet. The company has numerous presentations and our junior scientists are smart, energetic and most importantly in my opinion, cheerful.

While registering the man in front of me was wearing a Che button. He was about 60,short and unkempt as befitting a Che fan. I endeavored to say nothing. I was dressed as I think is appropriate for fiting in with academics(probably 30 years out of date) in khakis, a blue oxford shirt, tie etc and still felt quite overdressed for the occasion. He started harranging the women at the desk with his lack of freedom in this country and his chagrin at being denied his first amendment rights being a government employee. I finally had enough and suggested that he might better enjoy the freedoms allowed in Cuba and might also samlple some of their excellent health care system.

He replied "you are a pig" and then when skulking away yelled over his shoulder "Your mother had six tits".

The fascination with Che has always puzzled and until recently rather amused me. Unfortunately the stakes are now too high for this detached attitude to work.

In the following article via Sheila A-Stray Anthony Daniels makes the following points.
in reviewing the new movie Motorcycle diaries about a voyage of self discovery taken by the young Guevera

" In short, Guevara is not so much an historical figure as a tourist destination. And most tourists don’t read too deeply into the history of the places they are going to.

This frivolous attitude to Guevara started during his lifetime. Sartre said that Guevara was the most complete man of our time, and he, like Gott, had something like a religious experience on meeting him: "
and
"In this, Guevara was absolutely typical of the messianic bourgeois, whether of reformist or revolutionary stripe: he wants to make sure that no one ever again lives as well as he has lived. Inside every rebel, there’s a tyrant trying to get out. ......The film is thus the cinematic equivalent of the Che Guevara T-shirt; it is morally monstrous and emotionally trivial.

In one sense, and one sense alone, Guevara remains eternally youthful: his ideas are irredeemably adolescent. They have all the puritan priggishness of adolescent fervor"
Read it all.

Blogging was a sign I had too much spare time. About a month ago I accepted a job as CEO of a small biotechnology company. It is the perfect information age outfit, developing new therapies for patients with neurological diseases.

Obviously I've been busy and bloging won't be as frequent as before. I was also busy with family business related to the death of my father.